Saying nothing.
Finally, she risked life and limb and stepped close enough that he was forced to stop or put her in danger from the flying shards of wood.
Lowering the ax, he leaned on it, his breath coming steady but hard.
Still saying nothing.
“Hey,” she said softly.
“Hey. What are you doing here?”
Fair enough question, since she’d asked him the same only this morning. It figured that he’d get right to the point. He was good at that.
She wasn’t. “I was… confused. And I guess a little mad at everyone, and then I went for a drive and my car came here.”
His mouth quirked very slightly. “Did your car forget that you’re mad at me, as well?”
“Well,” she said, “out of all the people I’m mad at, I think I’m the least mad at you.”
“Why’s that?”
Maddie fought the urge to pull out Chloe’s iTouch and ask the Magic 8-Ball how she was doing with Jax, but she had a feeling she knew.
“Why, Maddie?”
Dammit, he wasn’t going to let her off the hook. She went with flippant. After all, it was her number-one defense mechanism. “You did recently put a damn good smile on my face. Maybe you get partial immunity. I don’t know.”
He eyed her for a long moment, clearly seeing right through her. “I gave you more than a smile,” he said, setting down his ax and walking into the house.
Jax headed into his kitchen and straight for the refrigerator, pulling out a bottle of water for his suddenly parched throat.
Do-or-die moment. Either she’d come to say thanks for the memories and vanish off into the sunset, or she was here to… Hell, he was afraid to hope.
When he’d been a lawyer, he’d walked into court every day knowing he was going to win. Always.
It’d be nice to know the verdict on this.
Distance. He needed some. He downed the water, tossed the bottle aside, and moved through the house. Not a total ass, he’d left the slider open in case she wanted to come in and destroy him some more, but without looking back, he went into his bathroom. Stripping out of his sweaty clothes, he cranked the shower up to scalding and stepped in. Bowing his head beneath the spray, he let the water bead down his back and tried to clear his mind.
Not happening.
Instead, images came to him: Maddie standing beneath the hot water with him, glistening and soapy, her eyes soft and warm on his; him gliding his hands over that body until those eyes glazed with passion, listening to her pant his name over and over as she came-
When the door opened behind him, he didn’t move, didn’t lift his head, didn’t open his eyes. Her arms came around him, and he felt her naked body press up against his.
And here was the thing. All his good intentions went out the window as those hands drifted down his chest and over his abs, because it was hard to remain distant with the hard-on of his life.
“Why are you here?” he asked again.
Maddie swallowed hard and tried to channel… which actress? Damn, she couldn’t think of an actress to save her life! She was on her own. “Well, you seemed pretty sweaty,” she said in her best come-hither voice. “Thought maybe I could help wash your back.” She leaned in and licked a droplet of water off his neck.
She felt him draw a deep breath. “Maddie.”
Okay, so he wasn’t in the mood for flippant. She could understand that. She paused, her eyes on the smooth muscles of his back. “You bared yourself to me.”
He turned to face her. “Yes, as it happens, I’m as bare-ass naked as it gets.”
They both looked down. Yeah, he was naked. Gloriously so. “I meant more than your body,” she whispered. “You bared yourself to me, and… and it took me longer than it should have to notice.”
God, he was perfect. Hard and ripped and heart-stoppingly perfect. She ran her finger over the drops of water on one pec, and, whoops, grazed his nipple.
“Maddie?”
“Yeah?”
“Up here.”
She tore her gaze off him and met his eyes. They were slightly warmer, and maybe, possibly, amused. Relief hit her so hard she nearly slid to the tile floor. “Oh, Jax. I’m sorry that it took me so long to get with the program. That I doubted you, that I pushed you away. I wasn’t looking for this. And I know you weren’t, either, even less than me, but you… you handled it better.”
His hand slid over her stomach and settled on her hip, which made it all but impossible to think, but she struggled to try. “I know I said some things… about where we’re at.”
“Actually, you made yourself pretty clear about where we
“About that. I was wrong.” She was a little breathless just from watching his hands run over his body, leaving soapy trails in their midst, and lost her train of thought.
He didn’t say anything, just finished what he was doing. Finally he put the soap back, rinsed off, and then moved unexpectedly, pulling her in close, wrapping his arms around her and just holding on. Tight. She didn’t mind. She could have stayed like that forever, feeling safe and warm and stupidly happy. But she had more to say. “Jax, I-”
“Whatever you want,” he said, his voice low and raw. “Except for letting go. I’m not going to let go.”
“I hope you mean that. Because you were right about something else, too. I
“You did do a lot of knitting,” he said with an utterly straight face and then moved his lips down her neck.
Shivering at the feel of his mouth brushing over her wet skin, she clutched at him. When he lifted his head, he was smiling. The sight threatened to short out her brain. Or maybe that was his touch. She wasn’t sure, except she was breathing hard and was dangerously close to leaping into his arms and impaling herself on him. “You said to fight for what I want. You said to get into the ring.” She looked down. “Um, not to change the subject, but you want me.”
“Hard to hide it.”
“I want you back,” she whispered, which isn’t what she’d meant to say. Exactly.
“For how long?”
“As long as you’ll have me.”
He drew a shuddery breath. “So this is you, fighting for what you want?”
“Yes.” It was hard to concentrate. His hand was on her hip, slowly making its way north until it cupped her breast. His thumb glided over her already pebbled nipple, his expression a mixture of heat, affection, need, and so much more that it took her breath. She slid her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest, shivering when he cupped the back of her neck. “I came to Lucky Harbor out of obligation, but really, I was looking for something.”
“Did you find it?”
She loved the way his voice rumbled through his chest, his body radiating into hers. “Yeah, I found it. I’m staying in Lucky Harbor, Jax. We’re going to rebuild. For the first time in my life, I fit. I have my sisters, a place that’s mine-well, it’s only one-third mine, and we still owe you a ton of money, not to mention it’s half charred-but you know what I mean.”
His lips twitched.
“And!” She drew a breath, because this was the big one. “I let myself love and, in return, be loved.”
He went utterly still, his eyes twin dark pools. His fingers brushed up her spine, sinking into her hair. “Did you?”
“Yes.” Her heart clenched that he’d doubted it, even for a minute. “I love you, Jax. And you love me back.”
